AMBLER — The Ambler community will be split in half starting in September, following a new decision from the school board.

In an 8-0 vote, the Wissahickon School Board approved a redistricting plan for its elementary schools during the April 22 meeting. The approved plan includes incorporating Mattison Avenue Elementary School students into both Shady Grove and Lower Gwynedd elementary schools. Board member Dick Stanton was absent from the meeting.

In February the board tasked a specially created redistricting committee to determine the future of its elementary schools in the wake of the decision to close Mattison Avenue and to respond to a decline in enrollment across the district. March 11 the committee presented a preliminary proposal to the board, followed by three community meetings at Mattison Avenue, Shady Grove and Stony Creek to allow parents and other interested community members to voice their opinions and have their questions answered. April 2 the redistricting committee met once again to discuss the input from the community, before reaching a decision and presenting it to the board for approval.

According to a district handout, the board’s approval of the redistricting plan allows for the following changes to take place starting in September:

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Students who reside in Normandy Estates, Windermere, Amberley Way at Blue Bell and the area between Swedesford Road and Route 202, which stretches north of Morris Road to Swedesford Road, will be within the Stony Creek attendance boundary.

Mattison Avenue students will be incorporated into both Shady Grove and Lower Gwynedd based on a boundary line that is drawn along Hendricks Street across Butler Pike along Park Avenue to Highland Avenue to Church Street to Bethlehem Pike. Both sides of the street along this boundary will be within the Lower Gwynedd attendance area, all other students will be within the Shady Grove attendance area.

Current fourth-grade students will have the option to be “grandfathered” for the 2013-14 school year only, thereby allowing them to complete their fifth grade year at their present school. Transportation will be provided for these students. Parental notification should be provided to the building principal by May 15 if they plan to exercise this option.

According to district handouts, the committee determined the issues clustered primarily around the following themes: elementary school assignment for students who reside in Ambler Borough/the current Mattison Avenue attendance area, transition, class size, transportation and grandfathering.

According to the district, the committee determined that class size, transition, transportation and grandfathering were addressed and would continue to be addressed in the future. It further said in regard to students living in Ambler Borough, it was determined that the plan accomplished what the district committee set forth based on its guiding principles. Any change to the existing plan would compromise several guiding principles and create inefficiencies in the management of school district operations. The committee said it was comfortable that all areas of concern were addressed.

Prior to the vote, Superintendent Judith Clark said there was talk of keeping Mattison Avenue students as a whole together, but it was determined that it was “not feasible.” She said the increased number at Shady Grove would put the school’s enrollment at capacity and would not allow for growth.

She also dispelled a rumor that there would be increased class sizes at the elementary school level.

Before the decision was reached, community member Christine DeLaurentis pleaded with the board to reject the proposed plan and to devise a new plan that would keep the Mattison Avenue students together. She said the people of Ambler have “suffered indignities” and have been “insulted” over the past year with the closing of Mattison Avenue, with treatment like they were second-class citizens by some in the community and then finally with the proposal to split the borough’s students in half.

“My son’s friends are not going to be in his classroom,” she said.

She said she believed the redistricting plan really only affects the students of Mattison Avenue, not the school district.

She also said the three redistricting community input meetings ignored many of their requests to create a new plan to keep Mattison Avenue intact.

“Tell the administration to go back to the drawing board,” she told the board before the vote. “And keep our neighborhood intact.”

After the decision was reached, the Mattison Avenue supporters were quiet and did not choose to speak during the final public comment section.

Following the meeting, Ambler resident Amy Joyce gave her opinion on the decision very succinctly.